Iowa one of 10 states losing seats in the U.S. House

Census Bureau officials confirmed today that Iowa will lose one of its congressional seats based on the 2010 population count. Iowa will drop from five representatives to four for the 2012 election. Census Bureau director, Robert Groves, released the numbers today, and said there is a 12 seat shift in the U.S. House based on the latest count.

He says states gaining seats include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington. Iowa is one of 10 states losing seats along with Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York (-2) , Ohio (-2) and Pennsylvania. Groves says this continues what has been a 70-year change in representation that saw the western area of the U.S. gain seats.

Groves says each decade since 1940, the trend has been a growth in seats for the western and southern states and a loss from the midwest and northeast states. He says since 1940 there has been an overall shift of 79 seats in the U.S. House to the south and west regions. Groves says 32 states will not see any change in the number of representatives.

California will now have 53 seats, Texas will have 36, New York and Florida will each have 27, while seven states will have only one representative. Groves says the average population size of 710,767, compared to 646,952 in 2000. The last decade saw Iowa and other midwestern states lose their role as the most populated area of the country.

Groves says the west made up just over 7% of the total U.S. population in 1910, but that has shifted dramatically in the last 100 years. He says the northeast and midwest regions have consistently declined in the last 100 years, while in 2000 the west had 22.5% of the national population.

Groves says the 2010 population shows the west region with more population than the midwest for the first time ever. The Census Bureau says Iowa had 11 seats in the U.S. House following the 1910 census. Groves says the detailed 2010 population information used by states for redistricting will be distributed to the states in February.